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The Cairns Council recently published “Cool Homes—Smart Design for the Tropics”.

Cairns Council Releases Guide to Tropical Home Design

Architect and writer Steve Mouzon calls the recent era of homebuilding the “thermostat age” because buildings depend on machines for heating and cooling, rather than good design.

“Originally, before the Thermostat Age, the places we built and buildings we built had no choice but to be green, otherwise people would freeze to death in the winter, die of heat strokes by summer, starve to death, or other really bad things would happen to them,” he said.

That’s the magic of vernacular architecture, creating buildings optimized for a specific place.

As part of its Sustainable Building Design Policy, adopted in 2011, the Cairns Regional Council has recently published a guide titled Cool Homes—Smart Design for the Tropics. The 31-page guide aims to help homeowners create a comfortable, efficient, and sustainable home that uses the vernacular design features appropriate for a tropical climate.